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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24854545">You Were Too Young to Die for My Mistakes</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SemperAeternumQue/pseuds/SemperAeternumQue'>SemperAeternumQue</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys - My Chemical Romance (Album), The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Comic)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Gen, Post-SING (Music Video), Sad Ending, This is not Happy, canon is painful and so is this, dr. death defying fucked up real bad and is trying to cope with it, how young the fab four were when they died constantly fucks me up, no beta we die like the fab four, same for cherri cola, show pony uses ey/em because I do what I want, the fab four are mentioned but don't appear, they were literally teenagers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 07:35:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,139</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24854545</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SemperAeternumQue/pseuds/SemperAeternumQue</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Fabulous Four die saving the Girl, it falls to Dr. Death Defying to try and bring them some peace in death.</p><p>Which means, of course, a trip to the diner to find their masks. Angst ensues.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dr. Death Defying &amp; Show Pony (Danger Days)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>You Were Too Young to Die for My Mistakes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hey y'all welcome to more shitty danger days fic with a heaping of angst because we can't have nice things! (I'm why we can't have nice things. Also canon. Canon is to blame as well.) Note that Dr. Death Defying is pretty biased in his telling (towards blaming himself) and since this is his POV, it blames him for a bit more than is really justified. </p><p>Anyways! Onto the actual fic!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s a long time before he can bear to go back to the diner where the Fabulous Four once lived, but it has to be done. They didn’t leave their masks at the radio station, but they weren’t wearing them when they left, which means the masks are in the diner. Their young souls deserve peace after all the fighting they lived through, and so Dr. Death Defying and Show Pony take the van and head for the diner.</p><p>They leave Cherri Cola behind at his radio station. He blames himself too much for this, and Dr. Death Defying hopes to spare him at least a little pain.</p><p>The diner is quiet. Too quiet. When the four lived here, it was constantly full of noise and chaos. During the few times Dr. Death Defying visited, he was always greeted by one of the four, usually Party Poison, hollering a ‘hello, Dr. D!’ as they tried to fix something in the diner or find the Girl’s boots or keep Ghoul from blowing up the diner. It was often Jet Star who would manage to slow down long enough to give Dr. Death Defying a greeting even vaguely approaching calm, and then they would be off again to keep the other three from causing more chaos than absolutely necessary. It was always full of life, loud laughter and bright colors and the occasional shouted curse, the true spirit of the desert embodied in four teenagers with too large a burden and a motorbaby. </p><p>Now, the diner is silent. The bright graffiti the four scrawled across the walls remains, but the noise that accompanied it is gone, leaving the diner merely an empty shell without the killjoys who brought it to life. </p><p>It’s Show Pony who first dares to break the silence. “Guess we better get lookin’ for the masks, huh?”</p><p>Dr. Death Defying just nods as ey skates down the hall, peering into the four’s rooms and occasionally making remarks as if ey hopes eir voice can fill the void where four teenagers’ laughter should be. </p><p>Between the two of them, they find three out of four masks within a few hours. Jet Star’s is easy; they left their helmet right on the table of one of the booths. Kobra Kid stuffed his in the drawer that he always used for hiding things, so his isn’t hard to find either, although it does take some remembering which drawer was Kobra Kid’s hiding spot.</p><p>Fun Ghoul’s mask is the one that takes a while; the Fabulous Four’s resident gremlin was a bit of a hoarder, and not only did he keep many, many things in his room, he also had many creative hiding places around the diner. Finally they locate it, tucked higher than Show Pony can reach without climbing on a table. How Fun Ghoul got it up there is a mystery, as he was the shortest of the four by quite a ways. He must have had to climb quite a ways. But it doesn’t matter how he got it up, they get it down and add it to their pile on the table.</p><p>They find three of the masks, but Party Poison’s turns out to be the one that thwarts them. No matter how hard they look or where, it remains nowhere to be seen. Admittedly, it is quite small, but it’s also a bright yellow color that should be easily visible most places. But in the neon colors of the diner, even something like that would blend in, and it seems to be missing entirely. Wherever Poison hide it must be very clever, that or the mask isn’t in the diner at all.</p><p>It’s almost nightfall by the time that Dr. Death Defying realizes their search is hopeless. It’s not here, or if it is, it’s hidden somewhere only Poison knows- knew about.</p><p>“We need to head back to the radio station.”</p><p>Show Pony nods. “We should get goin’.” Ey doesn’t sound too happy about it, but he can tell ey knows it’s the right choice. Much as they want to bring their friends peace, they can’t linger in this ghost of a home for too long. The desert needs them to go on, needs Dr. Death Defying’s voice on the airwaves and Show Pony skating from place to place.</p><p>Still, as Show Pony gathers up the masks and heads for the door, Dr. Death Defying calls after em “I’ll join you in a minute, I’m going to take one last look and see if we missed it.”</p><p>Ey nods to him. “Don’t take too long, Dr. D.” Eir small, painful smile tells him that he understands exactly why he wants to stay for a minute.</p><p>It’s so quiet. The only thing here now is ghosts, the memories of people now beyond their reach. People who died too young. If he just didn’t push them so far-</p><p>He shuts down that thought, but others crop up, more than he can beat back. What if he tried to keep them from fighting? What if he left the Girl with a different crew? What if he didn’t encourage their rebellion, didn’t give Party that time on the airwaves? What if he didn’t help them become legendary?  What if he insisted Cherri Cola go with them? What if he was quicker to arrive when they were rescuing the Girl? What if he made them wait until they had a more solid plan or encouraged other killjoys to help them or made sure they weren’t so well-known in the desert or helped the Girl stay hidden or-</p><p>Abruptly, he realizes his head has fallen into his hands, the weight of guilt and despair almost too much for him to bear. He knows better than to ask why the four had to die--the desert is not a kind place, and no star that burns so brightly lasts for long--but he still wishes he could have done something. </p><p>They were so young.</p><p>Teenagers, all of them. Children trying to raise another child. Children trying to fight a war. He let them fight, pretended that it didn’t serve his agenda of trying to topple BL/ind, forgotten how it was to fight so young. And now he has to live with the fact that it was him, directly or indirectly, who got them killed. </p><p>Logically, he knows they would have died anyways. No Crash Queen as wild as Party Poison could have survived long out here, no matter how good at fighting they were. And where Poison went, there was never any doubt the others would follow. But it still hurts to know how much of a hand he played in their deaths.</p><p>He doesn’t suppose it ever won’t hurt. It’s always going to be his fault, after all.</p><p>They were so young.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I am so deeply sorry this was intended to be painful but I really didn't know how painful it was going to turn out. *offering some chocolate-filled cookies as a consolation for all the angst*</p><p>Please leave me some feedback (read: validation) if you want to, or send me an ask/come scream to me over on my tumblr @always-and-forever-a-killjoy!</p><p>(Also this fandom has been all I've been able to write for for like, the past month, so expect more shitty danger days fic. Probably about Cherri Cola. I love him.)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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